TCU likes coach Sonny Dykes. But does it like him enough to extend his contract?
Sonny Dykes’ agency team has reached out to TCU inquiring about a contract extension for the head coach whose deal expires after the 2028 season.
According to people familiar with the dialogue, there has been no movement on this for the coach, who was given an extension by the school’s previous administration on Dec. 7, 2022, days after TCU was announced as one of the four teams to make the College Football Playoff.
(FYI: An agent contacting a school about an extension is standard practice.)
Of the 16 head coaches in the Big 12, only Utah’s Kyle Whittingham’s contract expires before Dykes. There is uncertainty if Whittingham will coach in 2026, or retire. His contract expires in 2027.
Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire, whose current contract was good through 2028, recently agreed to contract extension through 2032.
Three other Big 12 coaches — Houston’s Willie Fritz, Cincinnati’s Scott Satterfield and Arizona’s Brent Brennan — are under contracts that expire after the ‘28 season.
Why TCU would extend Sonny Dykes now
TCU would extend Dykes because it is satisfied about the overall health and state of the program, and to send a message to fans, alums and potential recruits that he’s secure. And/or prevent him from potentially looking elsewhere.
This current four-year period with Dykes is TCU’s second-most successful four years since it joined the Big 12 in 2012. The team is 35-17 overall under Dykes, with three winning seasons, is 23-13 in the Big 12, has one Big 12 title game appearance, one playoff berth, a win over Michigan in the national semifinals and trip to the national title game.
The only period better was the 2014, ‘15 and ‘17 seasons under Gary Patterson; the team was 34-6, and 22-5 in the Big 12. They had one losing record, in 2016, won the Alamo Bowl twice, as well as the Peach Bowl.
Being invited to the four-team playoff and winning a playoff game to play in the national title, Dykes raised the level of expectations for a program that had not reached those markers before under Patterson.
In a transfer portal era, he has done a good job of keeping players from fleeing, and establishing a culture that the players enjoy. In each of the last two years the team has had ugly stretches that looked like the players may bail. Instead, he kept the players engaged, and the team intact to have strong finishes.
Dykes is well-liked throughout the university, by donors, and has made it no secret that TCU, and Fort Worth, is it. He wants to be here.
Why TCU would not extend Sonny Dykes now
Because it doesn’t have to.
The team has not achieved what both Dykes and athletic director Mike Buddie set as goals in either of the last two years. No playoffs, nor an appearance in the Big 12 championship game. They will finish the season unranked for a third straight year.
TCU is not bad under Dykes. It’s in a much better place than Baylor with Dave Aranda, or several other programs in the Big 12, including Colorado under Deion Sanders, who was a candidate to replace Patterson in 2021.
TCU is just not where it wants, or needs, to be as it is now on the “wrong” side of No. 4 Texas Tech.
Since Dykes was hired in December 2021, college football has changed in ways that no fortune teller would have predicted.
NIL money and the transfer portal have shaped college football into an unregulated version of Major League Baseball. Dykes said Tuesday that he routinely fields calls and texts from agents who are looking to “shop” players. A big portion of his job now is to simply raise money.
When asked about the “guardrails” that were put in place over the summer by the NCAA, which included a de facto salary cap and regulations about specific NIL deals, Dykes dismissed the efforts, and aspirations held by so many throughout college sports.
“No guardrails,” he said. “None.”
As a result, college football is mostly about raising money to pay players. It is not just Texas Tech doing it, either. Coaching matters, but money matters more.
“When I got into coaching ... the blue bloods were the blue bloods, and you had to figure out a way to overcome it. And you could do it,” Dykes said. “As the NIL stuff started to compound a little bit, the job changed. It became, ‘How much can you pay somebody?’”
TCU has willing and significant boosters who will invest money to see their football team win, but numerically it does not have as many as a big, Power Four state school. This evolution has TCU in a challenging spot.
Compared to the rest of Power Four football, TCU is pretty good.
It’s just not where it wants, or needs, to be, which puts an extension for the head coach in an “interesting” spot.
This story was originally published December 10, 2025 at 5:02 AM.
